We have increased our capacity tenfold, by reducing our lead time from hours to minutes in our internet business and weeks to hours in our LTL business.
SAP Business One and LISA WMS provided exactly what we needed and more at a very competitive price.
Additionally, we have added two new sales team members, to further grow our business by adding new customers. We are confident that this solution will support our growth plans.
David Wilhit,
President of Neotek
QUICKFACTS
INDUSTRY
- Automotive Aftermarket
CHALLENGES
-
- Inventory overstocks
- Lack inventory visibility
- Inefficient and labor-intensive manual operationS
BENEFITS
- Improved warehouse capacity by 10
- Lead-time for web orders and less than truckload shipping reduced by 99%
- Optimized inventory levels to meet fluctuating demand
- Improved inventory accuracy and visibility
- Reduced shipment errors to cut on shipping costs and improve customer relationship
- Automated tracking of inventory through the distribution process
THE SUCCESS STORY
ABOUT NEOTEK
Neotek is one of the world’s leading offshore manufacturers of brake components and automotive parts for original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket distributors. Founded in 1985 in Chia Yi, Taiwan, Neotek established its North American distribution operation in 1994 in Arlington, Tennessee. They also manufacture make-to-spec machine cast parts for a wide range of applications in including the medical and heavy construction equipment industries.
Neotek’s vision is to create strong partnerships with customers through development and use of the most efficient systems and processes, innovative technology, and competitive market strategies.
TAKING CONTROL
Neotek is an entrepreneurial organization where a dedicated staff of a few people does many tasks. To support this culture it is important to have systems and processes in place that can enable the team to work efficiently and accurately.
Until last year Neotek was relying on a paper-based picking system and employee “tribal” knowledge of where inventory items were stored. They were becoming consumed with processes that were managing them. These manual processes kept them from allocating time to look into a better system. They just had no time and they had no internal IT resources to point them in the right direction.
The lack of an integrated application suite was creating problems. Neotek had a customer satisfaction problem; customers were unhappy due to inaccurate shipments. This lead to increased costs due to returns and reshipments. The company also suffered from the dual challenge of too much capital tied up in inventory overstocks while suffering from lost sales due to stock-outs.
Neotek added headcount to increase accuracy and capacity. Regardless lead-times continued to increase. “We just could not leverage costs. We could not be competitive!” Neotek knew the time had come for change. It had been decided earlier to move the warehouse facility. It was the perfect time to evaluate their warehouse processes and software systems. N’ware Technologies was brought in to help with the warehouse process evaluation.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOLUTION
Knowing that a change was necessary, David Willhite, President of Neotek consulted a friend who had a similarly sized business. After doing research on the internet, making multiple phone calls and seeing demonstrations of three products, he chose SAP Business One. The decision came down to “the SAP name, the ease of transition from our old system, and the real-time flexibility and growth potential the base software offered” Wilhite said. “We need the right inventory at the right time, in the right place and get it out to the right people quickly.” This was made possible by implementing SAP Business One with N’ware Technologies LISA WMS solution. “LISA provided exactly what we needed and more at a very competitive price.”
REACHING THEIR GOALS
Neotek is now on the road to growth. They are using their savings to invest in adding new employees to their warehouse team to prepare for the increase in business that the new system will bring. “Additionally we have added two new sales team members, to further grow our business by adding new customers,” Wilhite said. “We are confident that SAP Business One with LISA WMS supports our growth plans.”
Contact us to discuss your specific business challenges or learn more about our WMS solution for SAP Business One and SAP Business ByDesign.
